1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a network device. More particularly, the present invention relates to a network device capable of transmitting a dying gasp and a method of processing the dying gasp processing thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
With the advancement of network communication technology, network devices such as network switches, routers and modems have become increasingly prevalent, allowing people to access various networks for more and more time. To ensure stability of their operation, the aforementioned network devices generate and transmit a dying gasp to each receiver connected thereto as soon as a hardware interrupt event (e.g., a power outage) takes place. The dying gasps of a network device are, in fact, notifications to the users or the manager that the power supply of the network device is malfunctioning or is about to shut down and hence requires troubleshooting. Each receiver receiving the dying gasp is also a network device, which is connected to the network device experiencing the hardware interrupt event.
Generally, a network device is powered by a built-in energy storage device (e.g., a capacitor) for a certain period of time when it is experiencing a hardware interrupt event to generate and transmit a dying gasp to each receiver in a timely manner. However, as the number of the receivers connected to a network device increases, the number of dying gasps that a network device has to generate and transmit to its receivers upon occurrence of a hardware interrupt event increases, too. As a result, the period of time for which a network device is allowed to be sustained by its built-in energy storage device must be extended, for example by using a larger energy storage device for providing more electric power. This larger energy storage device, however, goes against the trend toward network device miniaturization. Therefore, the conventional network devices and the way they generate and transmit dying gasps still leave something to be desired and need further improvement.